1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and more particularly to a serial type recording apparatus having a recording head loaded on a carrier which is run in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of a recording material for recording.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, recording apparatuses have a recording head loaded on a carrier, which is run by a conveying mechanism driven by a pulse motor in a perpendicular direction to a feeding direction of a recording medium. Recording information is sent to the recording head in synchronism with movement of the pulse motor to carry out recording.
In such a recording apparatus, in order to stabilize the speed of the carrier during recording, there are provided sufficient acceleration and deceleration areas before and behind a recording region (the width of a recording paper). However, there is a problem that the width of the apparatus becomes fairly large as compared with the recording region, i.e., the maximum width of printable recording mediums (recording papers).
Also, in order to obtain a reference of recording positions relative to the recording medium, the recording apparatus is provided with a sensor (hereinafter called the home position sensor) for detecting the position of the carrier or the recording head.
Also, it is well known that the abnormal positional condition of the carrier caused by the jam of the recording material, the trouble of the pulse motor or the like is detected and a predetermined error treatment is executed based on the detection. For this reason, e.g., encoders are provided to the pulse motor and the carrier to monitor the outputs of the encoders.
However, when the encoders or the like are additionally provided, the apparatus becomes expensive and extra spaces are required for those provisions, so that the apparatus becomes large.
Further, when such a recording apparatus is an ink jet recording apparatus, a recovery system device is provided therein so as to keep the condition of the recording head constantly preferably. A carrier motor is utilized as the power source of the recovery system device.
The recovery system device performs wiping and capping operations, which require larger torques than the operation for running the carrier. Also, at the time of the carrier running operation (recording operation), the number of rotations needs to be increased. Therefore, a motor satisfying these conditions of the torque and the number of rotations is selected for the carrier motor.
Further, a stepping motor is comparatively easy to control and then selected as the carrier motor. The stepping motor is driven by the two-phase excitation.
However, the motor to be used as the carrier motor needs to satisfy the above conditions in the conventional recording apparatus, so that there is a limit to form the motor smaller, which is a big problem to miniaturize the whole body of the apparatus.